Sunday Showcase Review November 6, 1983

 November is here already. I don't know about you, but this crazy year has somehow managed to fly right by while feeling like it's lasted a million years. Let's forget about 2020 for a few minutes and look through the November 6, 1983 Sunday Showcase.

Ballet Nacional Español was coming to the Tennessee Performing Arts Center on November 20.

Sesame Street Live opens on November 9, 1983 and it will be in town through Sunday. I never really had the desire to see these sorts of shows, even when I was a small child, as full sized costumed Ernie & Bert characters creeped me out. I'm sure lots of youngsters enjoyed these events and I assume once the pandemic ends these sorts of shows still go on.

Sesame Street Live video from later in December 1983

They knock 2 years off Prince's age in this article for some reason (he was 25), but it's still amazing to me at how incredible a musical and soon to be movie star the man was at such a young age. 

There's a nice big ad for the return of Sean Connery as James Bond in Never Say Never Again. It was announced that Sean Connery passed away just as I was finishing this blog post so I'll add a few quick thoughts on this great actor. He was James Bond to me as he was to everyone. Roger Moore did a fine job in the role and I've heard nice things about Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig (yes, I've not seen any Bond films since Roger Moore was Bond), but Connery was the original and best. I have fond memories of my dear departed mother letting me stay up late on Sunday nights to watch James Bond movies when they aired and my favorite was Goldfinger. Outland wasn't a huge hit, but I was really into science fiction when I was young so I really enjoyed him in that one. Years later I would finally see Zardoz which is mesmerizingly weird with Connery at his best. Darby O'Gill and the Little People was a fun Connery movie. I saw The Untouchables multiple times primarily because of Sean Connery. I could go on and on listing his films, but IMDB has all of that information. Treat yourself to one of his films today or soon and celebrate his life. 

"Let's Go Crazy" from the 1983 benefit mentioned in the article above 

Never Say Never Again

Goldfinger 

The Untouchables

Outland

Sean Connery singing in Darby O'Gill

Zardoz

Music store ads are one of my favorite things to look at. The Rivergate Mall Camelot Music is the only record store that ever carded me after the PMRC music labelling thing started in the mid-80's. They asked for my ID when I purchase Anthrax's Among The Living and Schoolly D's Saturday Night! - The Album.

Camelot Music was selling video games and so was Kmart. The bottom had dropped out of the home video game industry and game prices were plummeting. 

Joan Jett was one of many rock stars photos I would tape to the walls of the trailer we were living in at the time. She was appearing at Cat's to help plug her latest record titled Album (which I had on tape) before taking the stage later in the evening opening for Loverboy. I bet she blew them off the stage. 

"Fake Friends"

What happens when a couple of arena bands have lost some of their popularity? Sales on your records are declining and the hits aren't as big as before. You join forces on a co-headlining tour and keep playing the arenas. This doesn't mean either band isn't putting out good material, it's just the nature of business. You go up and you go down. I liked both Kansas and Heart and I bet this was a good pairing to see.  

Kansas - "Hold On" from the Nashville show 1983

Heart live on ABC In Concert 1983

Cajun's Wharf was featuring more than jumbo gulf shrimp and tasty barbecue beef ribs. They were serving up some excellent rockabilly with Billy Lee Riley and Ronnie "The Hawk" Hawkins all week. 

Billy Lee Riley - "Flying Saucers Rock & Roll"

Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks with Levon Helm

Rick Springfield was coming to play Municipal Auditorium on December 8, 1983 on his Living In Oz tour. I was always a big fan of Rick and still am. He picked great material to cover and wrote some classic rock songs of his own. It was good to see him get his props in the Sound City documentary.

Rick Springfield live in 1982

Local bands were going strong along with touring artists at Cantrell's. I'm guessing Dark Star was a jam band that perhaps played Grateful Dead tunes. I doubt it was the British metal band. One of my favorite Nashville bands, Shadow 15, was playing on Wednesday. Blues guitar slinger Gatemouth Brown was playing on Friday. I wonder if Roy Clark came out and played with him? The New Wave fusion jazz of The Nerve would be featured on Saturday night. 

Shadow 15 - The Last Forever

I had some friends (Bruno and Chris) that got to see the B-52's at Memorial Gym on November 12, 1983. They came to school in their B-52's concert tees on the next Monday. They loved the show and had good things to say about Translator too. If you were around back then I hope you got to see the concert. 

Translator "Unalone" live in Rhode Island November 3, 1983

B-52's "Dance This Mess Around" live May 1983

B-52's "Song For A Future Generation" live 1983

Once upon a time KX104 was a fun Top Forty radio station. I hope the winners below got lots of use of their prizes.

It's common knowledge that cinema peaked with Kenny Rogers starring in Six Pack. Cinemax was having a Kenny Rogers weekend so Six Pack was definitely included. I love this movie and I'm always happy to post the trailer from it.

go Brewster Baker!

Kenny Rogers was not only a movie star, he had the number 1 song in the Nashville Top Ten this week with his duet with Dolly Parton. Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" had been number 1 and was going into its 9th week in the Top Ten. My favorites would have been Prince, The Fixx, and the Police.

Kenny and Dolly rely on each other

turn around bright eyes

you've got a blank face which irritates

stupid look on my face

it's the same old thing as yesterday

Bonus content from the previous week's Sunday Showcase

Oingo Boing plays Exit/In November 2, 1983. That would have been a fun show.

Oingo Boing live at the US Festival 1983

If you couldn't go see Oingo Boingo you could watch the PBS special on The Chemical People. 

There was an ad for this upcoming event in the October 30, 1983 Sunday Showcase and it looked like Expo '83 was going to be a huge event. I wondered why I had never heard of it before and why there wasn't an ad in the November 6, 1983 Sunday Showcase. I looked ahead to the next week and the ad was back along with more information. It seems this event was a multi-media event with a mixture of live acts and performers beamed in from elsewhere. So Dean Martin and Jason and the Scorchers didn't share a stage like I had hoped. If you happened to attend this event let me know how it was in the comments. Until next week, I'm done. 

Sunday Showcase Review September 12-18, 1976 Special State Fair Edition

The nights are cooling off and crisp fall days are right around the corner which means Tennessee State Fair time. At least that's the way it was in 1976 in the pre-pandemic days. Before I review the Tennessean Sunday Showcase from September 12, 1976 let's look through a few of the ads from this Tennessee State Fair insert that came with the Sunday paper. This edition of the State Fair would break all previous records for attendance and revenue.

The Tennessee State Fair took place at the State Fairgrounds which makes sense. I often see people lamenting the loss of Opryland, but I don't think as many miss Fair Park which was located at the fairgrounds. Which is a shame as I always enjoyed going there with all of the carnival rides and the awesome wooden rollercoaster the Skyliner.

There were several food related ads in the insert like this one for Big Tex who had been selling pizza at the fair for 10 years.

The big musical attraction for the 1976 State Fair was ZZ Top. This was part of their World Wide Texas Tour where they brought lots of actual critters from Texas with them. 

Nick Gulas and NWA wrestling was a fixture at the Fairgrounds Arena and it would have been a thrill to have seen some matches while attending the fair. 

Up With People were very popular back in the Seventies and they are still going strong now. "Up, up with people, they're the best kind of folks to know."

Up With People from 1976

Insert Centerfold

Here's a coupon for a free game on the midway.

Here's another food ad for "The Most Tantalizing Flavor On The Midway!" which a pineapple whip.

If a pineapple whip isn't your thing how about a fiddlestick instead? You can enjoy your ice cream treat while the Tennessee Farm Band from Summertown tickles your eardrums.

That's it for the State Fair insert so let's check out the cover of the Sunday Showcase. Channel 2 news was getting some nice publicity here with an all new look promised. We usually watched the Channel 5 news in our house though sometimes we took in the hour long WSM news. 

Here's the color version for you.

Frank Sinatra was going to play M.T.S.U. on October 21st, but (spoiler alert) this concert never happened. Sinatra cancelled his planned Southern tour due to the flu with dates in Norfolk, Richmond, Atlanta, and Birmingham all falling to the wayside. Rumors would swirl around that the shows were cancelled due to poor ticket sales instead of the flu, but I would guess that the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Sinatra, would have had guaranteed money regardless of attendance. 8,000 people were projected to attend the gig in Murfreesboro, but they would have to settle for a refund and the local radio station WMTS broadcasting a two hour special of Sinatra's music.

The Spinners with super guests Brass Construction would play September 24th at Municipal Auditorium. If you didn't get your tickets through the mail you could get them at the box office, Fast Ed's, Music City One-Stop, and Haddox Pharmacy according to the September 24th Tennessean. 

Brass Construction on Soul Train

The Spinners were one of a kind

ZZ Top was coming to the State Fair so a full page ad was taken out in this week's Sunday Showcase. The World Wide Texas Tour had been a smash all across the USA. Note it says "Special Guests to be announced." Those special guests turned out to be The Band in their first ever Nashville appearance!

The Band live 7-20-1976

ZZ Top live 11-11-1976

The Bod Dylan Hard Rain concert was going to be broadcast by Channel 4 on Tuesday night. 

Shelter From The Storm

Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis had reunited briefly on the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon the week before and everyone was still buzzing about it. 

I had to go and this was the closest place

Dolly Parton was a staple in my house when I grew up since my mother always watched the Porter Wagoner Show. Dolly had gone solo and would have her own variety show called Dolly beginning on September 13, 1976. It only ran for one season with 26 episodes aired.

Captain Kangaroo and Dolly

Dolly in downtown Nashville 1976

Now for my one of my favorite things to do with these reviews: look at what I would have possibly watched on Saturday. I was an only child and I probably did spend way too time with my eyes glued to the television, but it wasn't like it's how I spent all my time. I usually would watch several hours a day if I had the free time, but I generally would be outside if the weather was nice so this is just a list of what I possibly saw.

The day begins at 6:00 with the adorable Sally Field in the The Flying Nun. I was most likely asleep since there was nothing at 6:30 really to see. I wouldn't be too interested in the cartoons that aired at 7:00, but if I was up I suppose I'd turn on The Sylvester & Tweety Show.  It may just be me, but I always hoped Sylvester would eat that annoying bird. I would stay tuned to Channel 5 and watch The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour every week. I'd switch the dial at 8:30 to Channel 2 for the The Scooby Doo/Dynomutt Hour.

Dynomutt promo

The Krofft Supershow came on at 9:30 and I would watch parts of this show. I thought Kaptain Kool and the Kongs were lame, but I did like "Dr. Shrinker", "The Lost Saucer", and "Electra-Woman and Dynagirl." Land of the Lost would always get my full attention at 10:00AM even if it was the weird 3rd season where the father gets back, but Uncle Jack ends up in the land of the lost. I'd probably tune back into The Krofft Supershow. Sid and Marty Krofft were making bank back in the Seventies!

the land of dreams they are leading you to is Atlanta

Season 3 intro

11:00AM is loaded with choices ranging from the awesome Zoom, the once beloved Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, teen detectives The Kids From C.A.P.E.R., and a kids gameshow I had completely forgotten about Junior Almost Anything Goes. 

Junior Almost Anything Goes promo

It would be American Bandstand and then NBC's baseball game of the week for me or perhaps I'd look in on the 4 hours of tennis showing on PBS. Channel 17 WZTV had recently started airing and we may have been able to pick up their feed. I remember when we lived out on Manson Pike my father purchased a rather big used Zenith TV and I could watch a blurry Spiderman on it. I would want to see Return of the Giant Monsters, Roller Superstars (go LA T-Birds!), and wrestling if Channel 17 was coming in good, but most likely my parents would switch over to Hee Haw at 6:00PM. Emergency! was a childhood favorite, but comic books trumped everything for me so I'd be watching Wonder Woman at 7:00. It would have been a rerun of one of the first 3 episodes as October  was when the next first run episode ran according to IMDB. I do know I liked Wonder Woman best when it was set in World War II. 

Lynda Carter rules

My parents would next watch The Mary Tyler Moore Show and the The Bob Newhart Show. I don't know if I stuck around to see the 2nd annual Rock Music Awards or if either of my parents kept the television tuned to Channel 5, but I hope they did. I probably went to bed around 10:00PM, but if I managed to stay awake I might have tuned into Saturday Night Live without understanding much of the humor or more likely I would have watched the local Nick Gulas promoted championship wrestling show.

The Rock Music Awards were wacky

Time to wrap up this post with a look at the Top 10 Records in Nashville from the past week. Wild Cherry had gained the top spot with "Play That Funky Music" which would end being the 5th most popular Billboard hit of 1976. The 2nd most popular tune of the year, "Don't Go Breaking My Heart", had dropped to number 4 and had been in the top 10 for 9 weeks. Rick Dees & His Cast of Idiots novelty song "Disco Duck" comes on the local chart for the first time at number 5 with a bullet. My favorites from this chart would be The Bee Gees and Heart. 

flapping my arms I began to cluck

Kiki Dee is cool and Elton was mega

lay down the boogie

what you doin' on your back

Heart - Magic Man live

That's all for now. I'll be back next week, but remember, there is a limited shelf life to these posts as I plan on stopping these full Sunday Showcase reviews at the end of the year. I'll keep on blogging, but a little over a year's worth of these should be plenty.